“In New Construction you’re only as good as your reputation,” stated Roquey Schofield, Vice President of Central Texas at Big Tex. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and can tell you first hand that automating the design process and developing strong working relationships with your builders will make all the difference.

With a focus on residential - new construction, Big Tex has a hold of 60-65% of the market in Houston, and throughout Texas they will install 12-15 thousand homes each year. “Our main goal is growth,” continued Roquey, “we are looking to grow in the neighborhood of 12% annually, a goal we are confident that we will achieve because of the software that we use. Wrightsoft’s Right-Suite Residential expedites the entire design process and has strengthened our reputation in the field, which is extremely important since this industry is 100% referral based.”

Automating the Process
Each builder has their own unique style and uses completely different products, being able to capture and maintain this information can be quite challenging. Roquey begins by getting a full copy of plan specs and then uses Right-Suite Residential to create a template based on the profile of his builders, such as their insulation values, roof type, wall configurations, and then he generates the loads. Saving this as a template, Roquey will review the plan 2-3 times a year to make sure all changes are accounted for and updated in the template. Roquey further explained, “When I do another plan for this builder, I simply pull up the template, and save it as my new plan name so that the initial template isn’t disturbed.”

“Using Wrightsoft, I can determine exactly what my loads are throughout a house and zone it accordingly. It also becomes a money saving feature for my client because I can determine zoning in different fashions, perhaps I can actually combine loads in a specific area and then use a smaller unit.” Having worked with one particular company for 15 years, new staff determined that cost savings would result from improved heat loss and heat gain of the envelope, ultimately lowering the air conditioning requirements to provide a more energy efficient home. Roquey explained, “I used Wrightsoft to determine what the changes in loads would be from making adjustments to the insulation values and upgrading the windows. Instantly the loads shifted, from ½ a ton in a smaller home to a ton in the bigger houses. Throughout Houston, Austin and Dallas, we implemented these changes in roughly 1,200 homes, which saved our client $150,000. For a homebuilder, that’s huge!

At Big Tex, we all have a great deal of experience but it’s nice to have a reliable software program, supported by an equally experienced staff, that can offer the proof we need as back up. It enables us to do a more accurate job the first time and save money by putting in the right equipment and correctly sized ductwork. Because of the amount of business that we do, our calculations are eventually going to be challenged, and when using Wrightsoft, my calculations have never been proven wrong. - What a joy it is when you’re doing so many houses at once.”